Keonjhar: Forest fires are common in forested parts of Keonjhar. Significantly, tribals of several villages in the district play a key role in warding off fires with their fuel collection habits. Usually, dry leaves are primary sources of ignition that destroy forests. Tribals visit jungles and collect dry leaves to fulfil their fuel needs.
And in some cases cooking gas is an unnecessary luxury for the women residing in village areas as they believe nature has given them resources to lead a bountiful life.
According to them, whenever they need firewood, they go, pick some dry leaves from nearby forests and fulfil their fuel needs.
For the tribals of Keonjhar, human being is related to nature both directly and indirectly. Due to human causes and natural disasters the jungle has been in the process of destroying.
They treat jungle as their goddess. To protect nature and jungle in Keonjhar, tribals have adopted an innovative way by collecting only dry leaves from the jungle as their fuel. They do not touch even a single branch of a tree for their fuel use.
By using dry leaves as their fuel they are saving the jungle from the fear of jungle fire which, if left unattended, can destroy an entire jungle.
Villagers from blocks like Sadar, Patna, Ghatagaon, Saharapada, Jhumpura, Bansapal and Telkoi collect dry leaves from the jungle for their everyday use. They store the dry leaves for their future use, if they are huge in quantity.
Every day the villagers visit nearby reserved jungles in search of dry leaves. There they sweep the forest floor and collect basketfuls of dry leaves. Trees like sal, acacia, eucalyptus and casuarinas mainly help them in giving dry leaves.
Environmentalist Ramesh Chandra Mishra said this is the best way to save the jungle from the fear of fire and satisfy the fuel needs of people. The tribals should be encouraged for their work, he added.
Mina Majhi, a villager, said using LPG gas is a very expensive affair for us. The dry leaves help us satisfy our fuel needs.